Fire at Statera BESS project in England brought under control, handed back to site management

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With close monitoring and a carefully controlled response, the crew contained the fire and made sure there was no risk to the wider community, it said.

The next day (20 February) the Service issued an update saying they were able to scale back their response and hand the site back over to site management, with area manager Dan Partridge saying:

“Over the last 24 hours, firefighters have worked tirelessly to contain the fire, prevent further risks and ensure the safety of the site and surrounding area. The response was supported by the site’s safety measures, including a reliable local fire water supply and appropriate spacing between battery units, which helped limit the spread of the fire. I would like to thank everyone involved in bringing this incident to a safe conclusion.”

Fire officers will carry out an investigation with the site owners and its equipment suppliers into the cause of the fire when it is safe to do so, the Service added.

Statera Energy project

In response to a request for comment, BESS owner-operator Statera Energy confirmed to Energy-Storage.news that the project in question belongs to the firm.

The firm is building a 300MW/600MWh BESS in Tilbury, called Thurrock, one of the largest under-construction projects in the UK, alongside a 270MW ‘flexible generation plant’, i.e. a gas-fired power plant.

Statera said it would not be issuing a statement in addition to the Fire Service’s, and didn’t name it as the Thurrock site. But the location of the Thurrock project matches that of the fire site in East Tilbury.

The Fire Service’s announcement said the fire was caused by a fault in one of the battery cells within a single containerised battery unit, leading to ignition. However, industry sources have commented that it may be hard to know the exact cause of the fire this early on.

See the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service’s updates here.

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